The Chinese Academy Of Sciences Developed Silver/Silicon Nanowire Composites With Long-Term Antibacterial Effect

Recently Research The staff developed a kind of Nano silver / Silicon nanowire compound material.

As a kind of antibacterial material, silver and its compounds have been widely used in daily life, and nano silver particles are favored as a kind of nano antibacterial material in the silver family. However, silver nanoparticles are easy to agglomerate and oxidize under light, resulting in reduced bacteriostasis. This instability greatly limits its application in the medical field.

Researchers Huang Qing and Fan Chunhai from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, together with Professor Li Shutang from City University of Hong Kong and others, used a new one-dimensional semiconductor nanomaterial - silicon nanowires as the substrate, and used the high reduction ability of hydrogen saturated silicon nanowires to reduce silver salts in situ on the surface of silicon wires to form nano silver/silicon nanowire composites. The synergistic effect of the composite material makes the dispersity of silver nanoparticles improved, especially its light stability significantly improved.

It is reported that this composite material shows excellent antibacterial properties. For example, 1% nano silver/silicon nanowire suspension (volume ratio) can delay the growth period of Galanz negative and positive bacteria for about 20 hours, while 10% suspension completely inhibits the growth of bacteria. Moreover, the cytotoxicity of this composite material to mammalian cells is very small. The preparation method of the composite material is simple and environmental friendly. Further research shows that this composite can still play a strong antibacterial role after being prepared into a film, which lays a foundation for medical and environmental applications.